William Blair cut shares of FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on FSV. Raymond James Financial, Inc. boosted their target price on FirstService Corporation from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. BidaskClub raised FirstService Corporation from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on FirstService Corporation from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. TheStreet raised FirstService Corporation from a c rating to a b- rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised FirstService Corporation from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. FirstService Corporation has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $67.00.

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Shares of FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ FSV) opened at 65.42 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.34 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $67.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.67. FirstService Corporation has a 52-week low of $39.05 and a 52-week high of $70.83.

FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.11. FirstService Corporation had a return on equity of 24.64% and a net margin of 2.84%. The company had revenue of $434.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $421.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that FirstService Corporation will post $1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

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FirstService Corporation announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, August 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase 3,100,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be issued a $0.1225 dividend. This represents a $0.49 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. FirstService Corporation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.20%.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FSV. Neuberger Berman Group LLC bought a new stake in FirstService Corporation in the first quarter worth $45,157,000. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in FirstService Corporation by 43.6% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,176,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,345,000 after acquiring an additional 357,370 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in FirstService Corporation by 26.7% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 813,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,043,000 after acquiring an additional 171,600 shares in the last quarter. AJO LP bought a new stake in FirstService Corporation in the second quarter worth $8,115,000. Finally, RK Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in FirstService Corporation in the first quarter worth $7,248,000. 58.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About FirstService Corporation

Firstservice Corporation is a provider of residential property management and other essential property services to residential and commercial customers. The Company operates through two segments: FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands. FirstService Residential is a property manager and provides ancillary services in the areas of on-site staffing, including building engineering and maintenance, full-service amenity management, security, concierge and front desk personnel, and landscaping; banking and insurance products, and energy conservation and management solutions.